>> nobody is going to get 100% but let's make sure that middle- class families and the american economy and, in fact, the world economy aren't adversely impacted. >> reporter: today's meeting at the white house is the first time since mid-november that the president has had all four congress impressional leaders in the same almost at the same time. senate leaders say they will work through the weekend. >> we are engaged in discussions, the majority leader and myself and the white house, in the hopes that we can come forward as early as sunday and after recommendation. that we're going to do the best we can for the caucuses that we have and the country that's waiting for us to make a decision. >> reporter: adding to the you are general see, 2 million unemployed americans will lose their parents on saturday if a deal is not reached. the nation's borrowing limit to finance its $16 trillion debt will be maxed out by monday. >> and the house will be back

insession on sunday. that gives lawmakers about 24 hours to approve a deal. that's if they make one over in the senate. a few weeks ago we here at 9 news built a fiscal cliff soap box and went out and asked washingtonians to stand on it and sound off. now that we're within shouting distance of that cliff we thought it would be a good time to break out the soapbox once again so matt jablow packed it up and headed out to mcpherson square earlier today. >> reporter: what do you do for a living? >> i'm in the government. >> reporter: what do you make of this whole fiscal cliff mess? >> it seems like a against baby- sitting gig in a way. >> i'm really disappointed because, one, our lives are in other people's hands, and if you raise the taxes, how are we going to survive for 201 and on? >> i'm just, like i said, waiting to see what comes up and hope for the best. >> a lot of people don't know that we will automatically see

a 2% did he address in our take- home tax. >> are you angry that we're even in this situation? >> not so much angry. just frustrated and, you know, just confused by it all, the lack of willingness to strike a deal should. what would you like lawmakers to give you regarding the fiscal cliff? >> compromise. i want them to come together and fix this problem. >> come together for a common goal. >> we really need a solution here. >> give back to the citizens, especially the hard working ones such as myself. >> coming to a compromise on spending. >> i think we're going to go over the cliff. >> we need to come together, because if we don't we'll fall apart. >> what, three days, four days left? >> reporter: yeah. >> we'll good over the cliff but i don't think there's going to be any long-term deal. >> can you please not raise our taxes. >> if anything, they'll make a short-term deal to kick the can down the road a bit. >> i'm very concerned. i think they need to put their personal vendettas behind them, and once that is achieved, they will be able to come together. >> if we go over the cliff the

stocks and the market take a hit, you know, what happens then? what happens? there's no way to sort of retroactively fix a recession. i know everyone feels confident, hey, we can go over the cliff and we'll fix it, but what happens if the markets take a 20% nose-dive? >> matt job low reporting. we may be heading over that fiscal cliff after this weekend but i hear the snow will start tumbling before we go that way. let's talk to erica grow. i guess we won't be needing our skis or sleds this time. >> no skis or sleds for this storm. it's not going to have enough moisture for that kind of snowfall but by this time tomorrow morning within the next 12 hours we will start to have flakes falling, even right here in the district. let's take a look at satellite and radar. you can see that rainfall approaching, but a little bit of pink sneaking in. you see that in west virginia? then the blues up to the north, an indication of snow. the pink is a mixture of rain, snow is and some sleet. a winter weather advisory is in

effect for the entire area shaded in blue from 3:00 a.m. until 6:00 p.m. so the snowfall beginning before the daylight hours on saturday. that's what is key here is that we will see that snow start to fall before the sun can get an opportunity to heat things up. so i think that we will see an accumulation even in the district, and i will give you more details on exactly what you can expect and when this all wraps up, coming up in the full forecast. derek, back to you. >> thank you, erica. highway officials all over our region are warning travelers to stay off the roads if you can, especially tomorrow morning. scott broom is in maryland tonight where the preparations are underway for the incoming storm. >> reporter: well, it's not a particularly big storm that's coming in, but maryland highway crews, nonetheless, are expecting enough snow to coat roads with hazardous ice and snow beginning late tonight and throughout the day tomorrow around the washington area especially north and west. they are fueling up, and loading up as crews here in

central maryland expect to be called in at about 2:00 a.m. to start fighting incoming snow as motorists are thinking about travel plans. >> i do have travel plans, and that's to stay home. >> if you haven't been thinking about driving in winter weather, now is the time. >> reporter: as the state highway administration, laura is keeping tabs on the developing forecast. >> it is never a good time to drive at the onset of the storm. fur planning on driving, keep a close eye on the winter storm saturday, and if possible delay travel until later in the afternoon after the storm passes, or even into sunday. we're pretreating roads right now in the d.c. and baltimore metropolitan areas with the idea of being proactive, placing salt brine on the road before the storm hits what. this will do is prevent the first adhesion of ice on the road. >> reporter: there are travel

advisories up in just about every direction could you be moving except towards maryland's eastern shore so be ready. in maryland, scott broom, 9news now. >> right here in washington, d.c. d-dot has announced its first full deployment of storm fighting equipment for the season. the trucks will be on the streets by 4:00 a.m. three alleged purse snatchers crashed head-on into a metro bus. they were spotted in a stolen car that was reported fleeing the scene of a purse snatching. when the officer tried to stop them, the suspects sped o. police never tried to chase them. there was too much traffic. but those suspects eventually hit the bus. the woman whose purse they allegedly scene got to the scene and identified them. >> all i noticed at the time, that it was a maryland temp plate, and that's it. >> how did you hear about this accident here? >> my husband is a d.c. police officer. >> the bus driver and passenger

suffered minor injuries. all three suspects were arrested. new york city police say a woman pushed a man in front of a subway train killing him, and now they are trying to track that lady down. witnesses say before the train pulled into the station the woman was pacing back and forth on the platform, talking to herself, and as the train rolled in, she pushed that man out in front of it and ran away. the victim was pinned as the train came to a stop. this is the surveillance video. you can see the woman that police believe may be the suspect, running from the scene. geed you indicators all over the nation are still thinking about the newtown tragedy but one state's teachers are doing a lot more than just think. we'll explain later. but up next, chicago reached a bub i couldn't say mail stone -- a dubious milestone. we'll tell you about it after the break.

so far this year afghanistan has had fewer troop casualties than chicago has had murders. chicago reached a total of 500 homicides last night when a 40- year-old man was shot in the head while standing outside a convenience store. according to i-casualties.org only 309 troops have died in afghanistan. that's 191 fewer than those in chicago. a major collision in montgomery county sent five people to the hospital. it occurred this morning. police stay driver of a volkswagen started driving in the wrong lane, hit three other vehicles and one man had to be taken to baltimore shock trauma for treatment of potentially life-threatening injuries. four other people were taken to the hospital. they are expected to be okay. new information about the three victims of that i-95 accident. police say the 87-year-old

driver and his two passengers were headed to a funeral in florida when they lost their lives. the accident happened when the victim's career ended a tractor- trailer that had stopped in traffic. u.s. customs and border protection says it seized more than 200 pounds of an illegal drug at dulles airport. it could sell for $30,000 on the street. a spokesman said no charges will be filed because it starts to break down about 48 hours after processing. it was a tad bit chilly today, but before you make your plans you may want to check erica grow's forecast in a few minutes. and gun enthusiasts versus protesters. they had another showdown at a popular local gun he show. details are next.

tonight firearms fans and protesters are mixing it up, verbally, at least, at one of the area's largest gun shows. debra alfarone went down to chantilly to check out the debate. >> reporter: lines are long, voices are loud, and this parking lot is packed. the nation's gun show is popular for protesters and for gun enthusiasts, but i would say the gun enthusiasts outnumber the protesters 10 to 1. what they lacked in number they certainly made up for in decibel level. >> ban assault weapons now! >> stop killing our children, nra! >> reporter: they are protesting, they are loud. >> ban assault weapons, congress! >> reporter: and they want what they call the gun show loophole closed where they say guns can be sold to anyone without a background check, although people on line say that's not true. code pink calls themselves a women initiated grass roots peace movement. we saw at least one verbal

showdown. >> you ever heard of the second amend ?ent. >> the second amendment and the supreme court made it abundantly clear there's nothing consistent with the right to bear arms and banning assault weapons. >> reporter: he didn't want to give us his last name but a gun owner did share his thoughts. >> there are definitely things that can be done to strengthen gun laws. but outright banning the sale of certain weapons is not going to solve any problems. those weapons are still on the street. what you want to do is keep them out of the hands of criminals. >> reporter: that gun show started today. it goes for the next couple of days. as you can see it is a pretty big event. in chantilly, virginia, debra alfarone, 9news. >> educators from all over the state of utah gathered in one room all wondering if a gun in a classroom might be a good idea. the utah shooting sports council and op gary provided a

free concealed weapons course. they think it might be a game change tore keep kids safe. >> they say not to fight fire with fire, but i'm thinking that might be a good thing. >> when the gunman comes into the classroom, they have that one extra option of besides diving in front of the kids, and taking the bullet. >> a couple of teachers said they attended the meeting just to toy with the idea. they're not sure they're completely ready to arm themselves just yet. one furry sea lion might be called the neil armstrong of kittens, as in a one giant leap. the owner of the siamese cat found the pet crying out from the top of a tower. the high-voltage cables made it hard for firemen to get up there but as soon as they got close enough the cat decided to take flying leap. don't worry, the firemen were down there to catch it before it could get hurt. good grief. kitty, what was it thinking?

what's the deal? it said, i'm dog to land on my feet. >> legs out like that. good technique. >> good technique. we're still tracking this winter storm as it makes its approach, and i'm expecting mostly snowfall in the district and points north and west. let's take a look outside now with the michael & son weather could. we are looking at reagan national airport where all is fine right now but the clouds have started to build in. the current temperature is 38 degrees. the dew point is still well below freezing, so as any precipitation falls, i think it will actually become ice if it isn't already. so we are going to watch out for that wintry mix making its way toward us as we head through overnight hours and then it will start to actually fall before sunrise. so that snow mix is approaching. most of the snow will be during the morning hours on saturday. saturday afternoon we'll see pretty quick clearing but not before dumping some snow north and west of the city and then a

wintry mix with mostly rain south and east of the city as we head into the afternoon as i mentioned before. it is already down to freezing in frederick, leesburg 36, gaithersburg 30, hagsers town 32 as well. all the area is also seeing dew points below freezing as i mentioned before, and as this rain makes it toward us, we will see that acey mix start to develop. and i think that the accumulation will be as far south as the district just because of the way that this is all setting up. so overnight tonight the snow showers arriving after midnight. if you do have plans to head out on the town tonight, i think you will be fine. it's more like 4:00, 5:00 a.m. that we'll start to see the snowflakes flying. certainly cold enough for snow at the surface. tomorrow morning is when we are going to see the mix of snow and rain. in the afternoon, only sneaking up to about 40 degrees intown. 35 for most of your northern and western suburbs with the

showers clearing out of here and it tushes partly cloudy. this is what you can expect in your neighborhood. snow from basically northern montgomery county, loudoun county, up toward frederick county, then a wintry mix throughout the beltway and even a little bit south and east of that you are going to see the flakes flying, maybe even some sleet. mostly rain as you head towards the southern parts of the bay area and also the northern neck of virginia. one to two inches in northern loudoun county, and then two to for in hagerstown, winchester, those areas, a trace to an inch of snow for the district and the beltway in general. so it is a code yellow day. a yellow alert for saturday because of that mix of snow and rain. a hey of 40 degrees. sticking with 40 on sunday, but it will be back to the green zen on sunday because it is just going to be a little bit breezy under mostly sunny skies. monday is new year's eve, and the weather looks good. a high of 44 degrees. partly cloudy skies. no problems if you are heading out the door for your new

year's eve celebration. on new year's day itself. on tuesday it is going to be an okay day with the high of 44, but there will be a few showers around. i don't think we will see any accumulation out of those showers on tuesday, but it is something to keep in mind. it might be a little bit you know settled. the cold, that's what you have to prepare for. >> for those 50s and 60s a couple weeks back. >> yeah. big change. let's get to our weird news file. today we've got more proof that crocodile dundee was, as they say in hollywood, based on a true story. the wildlife park in australia where folks gathered to raid alligator nests and steal the eggs. don't worry, it's all for a breeding program. check it out. big mama gated tore doesn't know that -- big mama gator doesn't know that, and she's not going. turns out if they left the eggs in the nest to hatch, gators would just eat them. thing is gators will also eat

you, which makes this annual activity either insane, or just super-duper brave and dedicated. this year they got 15 eggs but the better news is what they didn't get, and that is, eaten. >> a very risky job. >> oh yeah. we eel be back. >> we want to hear what you think. send your e-mails to mcginty's mailbag. the address is mailbag@wusa9.com. 9news now will be right back. 9news now is sponsored in part by michael & son. if you can't, we can.

in the mailbag tonight the wusa facebook page blowing one answers to the question will we avoid the fiscal cliff. joe says no. >> i'm sure mr. obama would probably argue it's the gop that's not negotiating, not to mention the fact that speaker boehner's caucus seems to be doing whatever it wants to do. still, jerry blames the president. the decision was made at the polls in november. obama has the upper hand and he wants all taxes to go up so he can spend and run this country

in the ground. but gary points out, the president wants more taxes only on the well to do. so taxing the rich will not get all some may want but that does not mean they should not pay what they ought to pay, and that is what they paid in 1999. okay then, okay now. you want to pay down the national debt? put everyone to work. that was doing it 15 years ago, and that can do it now. that is our broadcast for tonight. we'll hope you will be around for our broadcast at 1 1:00. i will be here with erica. we'll see you then. have a great evening. bye-bye.

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